Heeding the Word of the Kind King
Part 76 - Luke 19:41-48 (ESV) - Pastor Tim Kroeker
ezekiel 18:32:
“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
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On June 15, 1775, George Washington was named the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He then assumed his command on July 3 in Cambridge, MA where the troops were assembled for General Washington’s review. He later publicly commented that what he found was an army in disarray. Dirty, independent, defiant, discipline scattered among regiments depending on individual commanders, and noncommittal – many coming and going as they pleased.
Continuing to read in our salvation story we come to Jesus’ climactic arrival in Jerusalem. Jesus was the Messiah, the one through whom all the promises of God would be fulfilled. He would inherit the throne of King David and rule over God’s people. And now he approached the holy city, riding on a donkey as throngs of his disciples shouted, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”
But like troops being found in disarray upon the review of their general, the people of Jerusalem were not prepared for the arrival of their King. Jesus wept over the beloved city before entering the temple and asserting his authority. He conducted a frontal assault upon the religious leaders and their corrupt system, driving out the merchants before beginning to teach in the temple.
These actions would lead to Jesus’ arrest, trial, and execution later that very week. Jerusalem would be destroyed because she rejected her king at his first visitation. May we be found ready awaiting his second.
